Supreme Court grants bail to former Amtek Group promoter Arvind Dham

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Arvind Dham, former promoter of the Amtek Group, in a money laundering case linked to alleged bank frauds amounting to Rs 25,000 crore. A Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Alok Aradhe set aside the Delhi High Court’s refusal to grant regular bail and allowed Dham’s appeal. The apex court said that the conditions of bail would be set by the trial court.

 

“In addition, the appellant will provide one telephone or mobile number on which he can be contacted by officers of the Directorate of Enforcement to ascertain his whereabouts while he is on bail. The appellant shall surrender his passport to the trial court and will not leave India without the permission of the trial court,” the Bench said.

 

The proceedings stem from two enforcement case information reports (ECIRs) registered by the Enforcement Directorate, which were based on FIRs lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation in December 2022. The FIRs were filed on complaints from Bank of Maharashtra and IDBI Bank, alleging diversion and misuse of loan funds by companies belonging to the Amtek Group.

 

The predicate offences cited in the FIRs include cheating and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code, along with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, all of which are scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. According to the Enforcement Directorate, its investigation concerns alleged large-scale diversion of public money by several Amtek Group entities, including Amtek Auto Ltd, ACIL Ltd, Metalyst Forging Ltd, Castex Technologies Ltd and ARGL Ltd.

 

These companies had secured loans exceeding Rs 25,000 crore from a consortium of public sector lenders such as State Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Karur Vysya Bank, which later slipped into non-performing asset status.

 

The agency has claimed that forensic and transaction audits conducted during insolvency proceedings, along with scrutiny of accounts dating back to 2012–13, indicated systematic diversion of loan funds instead of their use for declared expansion purposes. It has further alleged inflation of fixed assets by over Rs 15,000 crore through fictitious transactions and manipulated accounting entries, which were allegedly used to secure additional credit.

 

The Enforcement Directorate has also alleged that loan proceeds were routed through more than 500 group and shell entities allegedly controlled by Dham and his family, with the funds purportedly used for real estate acquisitions, investments and related-party transfers. Beneficial ownership, according to the agency, was concealed through layered corporate structures, family trusts and proxy shareholders.

 

Dham was arrested in July 2024 following searches conducted a month earlier. Assets worth over Rs 5,100 crore were provisionally attached, and a prosecution complaint was filed before the special PMLA court in September 2024. His bail plea was rejected by the trial court in January 2025 and later by the Delhi High Court, which cited the scale of the alleged offence, the statutory bar under Section 45 of the PMLA, and concerns over witness influence and evidence tampering.